Bikepacking Bikes

Inspiration

What is Bikepacking?

Simply put, bikepacking is the synthesis of mountain biking and minimalist camping; it evokes the freedom of multi-day backcountry hiking, with the range and thrill of riding a mountain bike. Click the link below to find out how to start. Start Here

How to Bikepack.

Broadly speaking, there are three bikepacking genres to choose from – Multi-day Mountain Biking, Ultralight Race & Gravel, and Expedition & Dirt Touring. Click the link below to learn about each.
Learn More

Where to go.

As important as it is to have a reliable bike and pack as light as you can, choosing the right route is perhaps the key to your enjoyment. Visit this section to learn how to choose a route, and some insight into navigation.
Learn More

When & How Long?

The average bikepacking trip should be based around riding between 25-75 miles (40-120 km) per day, depending on the weight of your load, the difficulty of the terrain ...
Learn More

The Routes Map

We have ~100 routes on our worldwide bikepacking routes map. Cick the link to see them plotted or select from the links to the right to filter. View The Map

Classic Routes

There are some routes that are made classic by their sheer perfection, and others by races. View The Classics

By Length (days)

By Location

Support/Advertise

It's not all riding bikes and sitting around a campfire; there's a lot of effort that goes into building content at BIKEPACKING.com. And we couldn't do it without continued support from great companies in the bike and outdoor industry. Get in touch and we'll tell you about our advertising, product review, and sponsorship opportunities... Send us an email

Contribute

We'd love to share your bikepacking stories and photography with the rest of the community. We welcome high quality contributions, including trip reports, videos, gear reviews, gear lists, recipes and of course, bikepacking routes from around the world.
Learn More

Sign Up

We promise not to harass you with a barrage of emails, or share your contact info with anyone. We’ll simply send you our newsletter that rounds up the best of what we feature on the site.

My 5 Favorite Bike Touring Goodies

For any gearheads reading, I thought I’d compile a few ‘splurges’ from my touring kit which I would now never leave home without. Aside from my Surly Troll, these are some of my favorite things that were a little bit excessive, but I am extremely glad I decided to pack them.

1. Lemolo Baggage toolkit

This is probably, hands-down, my favorite thing where I decided to spend a little extra. Strapped to my Selle-Anatomica saddle, it is accessible anytime. The pocket design is perfect and this bag is burly… I expect it to be around for a long time. Get one.

Mounted to my Titanico.

Beautifully crafted design.

Fits my toolkit perfectly.

2. Alite Monarch Chair

This was definitely a last minute splurge as I thought, ‘Do I really need a chair and the extra weight that comes with it.’ Yes I do. Perfect for reading, sitting on the beach or just resting your back at camp after a long ride, I love this thing. It weighs in at 1.3 lbs and packs up small as well. More info.

Packs down to 12″ x 5″.

Two legs with your legs acting as the third and fourth.

3. Amazon Kindle 3G

I was reading one day at a hostel and a british guy passed by and said, ‘Ah the Kindle… the travelers best friend.’ I couldn’t agree more. At first I thought I’d miss the tactile experience of pages, but being able to download a 500 page book in seconds, from a small village in Guatemala, pretty much rules. Here’s my reading list if anyone is looking for some book recommendations (*): Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma and The Last Stand of The Aztecs (non-fiction); Killing Pablo (non-fiction)*; Several Chuck Palahniuk books (fiction): Rant*, Survivor: A Novel*, Lullaby*, Pheonix; 2 B R 0 2 B (Vonnegut); John Dies At The End (David Wong, fiction)*

Rant got me back into fiction… thanks Nate.

4. Snow Peak Titanium 450 mug

I was thinking light and something I could both eat and drink from. This cup is the right size and makes the absolute perfect amount of morning coffee.

The perfect size and weighs nothing.

5. Rohloff Speedhub

Being a mountain-biker, I thought I might miss finessing the deraillleurs, but the perfection of ratios for touring and lack of maintenance make it worth the money. I expect 30,000 KMs out of this thing.

14 gears, no maintenance… except for an oil change every couple thousand miles.

NOTE: The cover picture of the post is a wall advertisement for Maya Tour bikes (the local bike that everyone in Guatemala rides).